The electronic edition is a part of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American
South.

Languages used in the text:
English

Revision history:

2005-04-20, Brian Dietz finished TEI/XML encoding.

Part of a series:
This transcribed document is part of a digital collection, titled True and Candid
Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students in North
Carolina
written by
Lindemann, Erika

Source(s):

Title of collection: Drury Lacy Papers (#3641), Southern Historical
Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill

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Document Summary

Lacy's composition gives the reason, the cause, the consequences
and the remedy for prejudice against writing compositions, advising the writer
to take up familiar subjects, divide the subject into headings, state the
proposition he intends to prove at the outset, and subordinate everything else
to this proposition.

It is a well known & an established fact that most, if not all
men are very much inclined to be prejudiced against composition writing, and
consider it a difficult matter to sit down and write a few lines on any
subject, however much it may deserve their attention, which is not, in itself,
very attractive or interesting to them, which will not bring from them natural
& impromptu sentiments, and which is not such, that, in treating it, they
can express their ideas with a greater degree of facility & readiness, (on
account of their familiarity with it & the interest they have in it) than
they could, were it a subject of a different character. This spirit of
prejudice not only exists, but also shews itself very plainly in young persons,
& in those who are inexperienced in the art of composing well,—I say
that this spirit is found fully as much, if not more in these, than in, those
who are not advanced in age, & who know more of the toils & fatigues
attending him, whose chief desire is his own improvement in this great Art,
& who would devote his time, his attention, & his talents to it, &
who would sacrifice every thing else for the fulfilment of his desire. But I
must beg leave to say, before proceeding any further, apart from the subject
itself, that, if it is possible for one to be free, in a great measure, from
this feeling of prejudice, I am he who is; for although I feel & know my
insignificance as a composer in a class of forty members, & am very
sensibly conscious of my inability to throw out any very original idea, or to
construe any beautiful sentences, which may adorn the composition & serve
as a varnish to conceal the rude under work, yet I
do not

Page 2

shrink back from the task (if it may be so
called) with so much dread, as I have seen manifested by some, whom I have
always considered far superior to myself in composition. But we must return to
our subject & attend with more care & assiduity to those rules, which
he, whom we consider high Authority,3 has instructed us to use & to abide
strictly by, lest we too fall into the very same error about which we have been
speaking, & become as much prejudiced against comp. w.
ourselves as any one can be; for we will
certainly get into difficulties if we go at random writing whatever happens to
come in our way; & here, we may very easily account
for the fact, vizwhy young men are at all prejudiced against writing
comps.—: Why! they can not even converse with any one, with the least
degree of composure, about sitting down two4 or
three hours at a time, & thinking over some subject, a thought of which,
(they will say) never crossed the mind of any person. Now for the
reason;—if they only had certain rules which might direct them, which
might apply very well in different ways in different cases, & by which they
might question themselves as to the propriety or the impropriety, the
"whys & wherefores" &c &c of their subjects, why! the
mere answers to these questions would enable them to progress some, by all
means, in their compos: taking away thereby all cause of complaint on account
of the lack of subject matter, & consequently taking away as much cause of
prejudice; for we suppose that, if they could compose without an effort of the
mind, if they only were to write down on paper mere words & sentences
without taxing their brains to construe them & to put them in their proper
places giving the correct orthography of their language, they would be
altogether indifferent as to the matter but for the
writing. This5 plan
of composing is altogether false; they reject

Page 3

with
scorn our systematic mode, viz by rules; & they go so far as to call it a
humbug; While they indeed are building on a rotten foundation & are writing
according to false rules (if they write accordig to
any) & rules to6
which will lead to very unsalutery consequences in
deed. Some of the consequences are these; It is quite evident that those who
reject these rules will always have to wait for a
thought instead of deriving any thing from their rules, as we would do;
and it so happens that those who wait for thoughts generally have to wait a
pretty long time; & does7 not
this, by theway, remind you of
Menas at
Philippi's
table who, poorfellow! as
Horace expresses
it, said—dicunda tacenda—whatever came into his head.8 (I
am much of opinion that my quotation comes under the head of tacenda.). But it
is well authenticated by the observation of every one, that
their mannerthis way—i.e. the above of writing influences the style
of compos. of those who practise it considerably, when they grow up to years of
manhood; for their productions, instead
far from being terse, argumentative, convincing, are without head or tail &
are generally an incongruous mass mixed up in the most disgusting manner,
without divisions or heads & in short without a subject (so to speak). I
would advise a young man therefore never to allow himself to fall into this
habit of writing loosely; of bringing together and classing under one head
subjects as much different as black & white;
for it is difficult for it is difficult
for a person to do this well & the difficulty or impossibility of the
matter [activates]9 that
prejudice against comp. writing, which is the subject of our present attempt.
But like almost all other things there is a remedy for these terrible
consequences of which I was speaking & I can, as well as I know how,
express, in a very few words, wherein this remedy consists. To overcome these
difficulties & these consequences one should never take a subject on which
his limited reading would constrain him to say but little.

Page 4

I mean by this that he should always take a familiar subject; and not
only this; but he should also divide his subject into heads, never neglecting
to state the proposition which he intends to prove, at the outset, & to
make every thing else subordinate to this one great head; by practising this
rule, or any one like it, he may make great personal advancement in the art
& may finally shine as one of the most brilliant writers of the age. A few
general remarks & we arehave done; Composition writing is an art which
differs from every other in one particular & it is this; viz; that,
wecommence with the hardest & as we proceed we find it becoming easier
& easier; in other words, that the principles or elements, as we would call
them, are harder than the actual application of them to practical purposes; I
might have mentioned this in the former part of my comp. as a reason why we are
prejudiced against comp writing; & not have been, by any means wrong as to
my statement. Let one, who would improve by this art, as well as in it,
practise the few rules, the substance of which I have given once or twice in
the course of my comp, & he will succeed in a pursuit which has rendered
the names of not afew men immortal. With these few remarks I submit10 my
piece to your inspection & criticism, hoping
that you will correct all mistakes, with a view to my improvement in a thing,
in which I take a good deal of delight.

Endnotes:

1.
Drury
Lacy Papers, SHC.John
Thomas Wheat, professor of rhetoric and logic, corrected the composition
in pencil.
Wheat also wrote in the upper left corner of page one
"J H
Lacey/5." Though the composition bears no date,
Lacy's classmate,
George
N. Thompson, discussed the assignment in his diary, in an entry dated
January 28, 1851: "We did not go to recite Geometry directly after prayers
as was our custom on Tuesday mornings, but in its stead, had a lecture from
Dr
Wheat, on the subject of composition. The suject he chose after the
lecture for us to write on was what he had said in his lecture—viz.
'Predujice against composition. What is the fact? Why is it so? What has been
the consequence What is the remedy?" (George
N. Thompson Papers, SHC). The first three questions
Wheat posed appear at the end of Chapter One in
Richard
Whately'sElements of Rhetoric (1828). Other compositions
corrected by
Wheat in the Drury Lacy Papers include
"Whether
the diversities of individual character be owing more to moral or to physical
causes";
"Kossuth";
"Considerations
which should influence us in the Choice of a Profession";
"University in a City, University in the
Country"; and
"The Pleasures and Pains of College Life."

2.
Wheat crossed out w in
writing and wrote W above the
word in pencil.

3.
Lacy wrote a lower and upper case a on top of each other, making it difficult to determine
whether or not he intended to capitalize authority.
Wheat's primary textbook for the sophomore composition
class was
Richard
Whately'sElements of Rhetoric (1828).
Lacy's composition treats some of the prejudices and rules
discussed in Chapter One of
Whately's book.

11. To the right of this line of text,
Lacy has drawn a 1 3/4-inch oval and written "Report
of
Prof." at the top of the oval outside its
circumference.
Wheat's endnote, written in pencil begins below
Lacy's signature: "Mr
Lacy has more than ordinary talent for this exercise. He understands the
forms of composition very well. His style will be
improved by going over every sentence & throwing out all words that are not
absolutely required to express the idea intended. By such condensation, both
energy & elegance will be gained."